View source for Robert LeFevre

{{for|the French painter|Robert Lefèvre}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Robert LeFevre
|image = RobertLeFevre.jpg
|image_size =
|caption =
|birth_name = Robert LeFevre
|birth_date = {{birth date|1911|10|13}}
|birth_place = [[Gooding, Idaho|Gooding]], [[Idaho]], United States
|death_date = {{death date and age|1986|5|13|1911|10|13}}
|death_place = United States
|occupation = [[business]]man, [[activists|activism]], [[radio|radio personality]]
|signature =
}}

'''Robert LeFevre''' (October 13, 1911 – May 13, 1986)<ref>{{cite book|last=LeFevre |first=Robert |title=A Way to Be Free, Volume One |publisher=Pulpless |location=Culver City, CA |year=1999 |isbn=1-58445-141-6}} (published posthumously)</ref> was an [[United States|American]] [[libertarianism|libertarian]] [[business]]man, [[radio]] personality, and primary theorist of [[autarchism]].

==Early life==
LeFevre was born in [[Gooding, Idaho]], on October 13, 1911, but when he was a child LeFevre's family moved to [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]]. LeFevre attended [[Hamline University]] studying English and drama. He then worked at a variety of jobs during the [[Great Depression]], such as acting and radio announcing. For a short time, LeFevre was a Shakespearean actor.<ref>{{cite news|title=LeFevre and Leary |date=May 19, 1978 |author=Grubbs Jr., Kenneth E. |work=[[Orange County Register|The Register]]}}</ref>  

LeFevre was a follower of the [["I AM" Activity|"I AM" movement]] from 1936 to 1940 or so.<ref name=floonet>{{cite book|author=George Thayer|title=The Farther Shores of Politics|pages=262–72|publisher=[[Simon and Schuster]]|year=1967|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023061534/http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/lefevre_edu.html}}</ref> He and one Pearl Diehl wrote a book in 1940 of their experiences in the organization called "I AM"—America's Destiny (Twin City House, St. Paul, Minnesota). LeFevre told how one day, when he was in the radio station studio, he was struck by the Great I AM presence, who spoke to him personally. LeFevre also claimed a number of supernatural experiences: driving a car while asleep for over twenty miles without an accident (this was accomplished with the help of his "Higher Mental Body"), leaving his physical body for a trip through the air to [[Mount Shasta]], and seeing Jesus.<ref name=floonet/>

In 1940, I AM leaders Edna Ballard and her son Donald were indicted by a grand jury in [[Los Angeles]] for use of the mails to defraud. Twenty-four other I AM leaders were also named in the first indictment; a supplemental indictment named LeFevre and Diehl as being defendants.  During [[World War II]], LeFevre served as an officer in the education and orientation division of the [[United States Army Air Corps|Army Air Corps]] before being discharged  in 1945 after spending a year in Europe and being injured in an accident. Soon after, he and his wife went on a cross-country lecture tour “in a pilgrimage for world peace.” Their tour was bankrolled by the Falcon Lair Foundation, a nonprofit group interested in religion, philosophy and government whose headquarters were [[Falcon Lair]], Beverly Hills, California (the former home of actor [[Rudolph Valentino]]).<ref name=floonet/>

After the War, LeFevre went to California and worked in the real estate business and unsuccessfully ran for Congress in the Republican primary of 1950. He then became radio and television broadcaster becoming involved in anti-[[Left-wing politics|leftist]] causes, including work for an [[union busting|anti-union organization]] named the Wage Earners Committee. A year later the committee was sued by two movie producers, [[Stanley Kramer]] and [[Dore Schary]], for picketing and libeling their films as being pro-[[Soviet]]. LeFevre and Ruth Dazey were among the defendants, but the case died when the Wage Earners Committee disintegrated.
<ref name=floonet/><ref>http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv29769</ref>

A few years later he  became vice-president of [[Merwin K. Hart]]'s [[National Economic Council, Inc.|National Economic Council]]; a director of the Congress of Freedom; a director of the U.S. (sometimes United States) Day Committee— whose purpose it was to diminish in importance the observation of October 23 as [[United Nations Day]]—and an adviser to Harry Everingham's "We, The People!".  The U.S. Day Committee made headlines in 1954 when LeFevre led an attack on the [[Girl Scouts of the USA|Girl Scout]] Handbook as having too many references to the [[United Nations]]. The Scouts retreated, reporting that more than forty changes had been made—about half of which were due to LeFevre's protests.<ref name=floonet/>

That same year LeFevre relocated to Colorado Springs and started to write editorials for [[R. C. Hoiles]]' ''Gazette-Telegraph''. Two years later he founded the Freedom School.<ref name=floonet/>

What animated LeFevre personally and the Freedom School ideologically—indeed, forms the bedrock upon which all courses were based—is a complicated philosophy that, in essence, rejects all government of modern times.<ref name=floonet/>

==Freedom School==
In 1956, LeFevre founded the [[Freedom School]], which he ran until 1973, in [[Colorado Springs, Colorado]]. In 1965, after a flood devastated the campus, the school and college moved to Santa Ana, California. The Freedom School was designed to educate people in LeFevre's philosophy about the meaning of [[Freedom (political)|freedom]] and [[free-market]] [[economics|economic]] policy. LeFevre added [[Rampart College]], an [[Unaccredited institutions of higher learning|unaccredited]] four-year school, in 1963. Both institutions shared the same campus, and had a press, The Pine Tree Press, which published works for both, including a newsletter for the Freedom School, the ''[[Rampart Journal|Rampart Journal of Individualist Thought]]'' (1965–68), and a tabloid for the Press itself.<ref>[https://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=362 ''The Free Market'', July 2001, Volume 19, Number 7]</ref>

After Rampart College's closure in 1975, LeFevre carried on his work in [[South Carolina]] under the patronage of business giant [[Roger Milliken]], and he also published ''Lefevre's Journal'' from 1974 to 1978. In 1979, LeFevre selected Freedom School graduate Kevin Cullinane to take over the teaching of Freedom School Seminars, including the Milliken Contract. Cullinane, who taught the principles of LeFevre's philosophy to students at Academy of the Rockies, which he had founded in 1972, taught Freedom School from 1979 until 2005 as part of Milliken's management training. He expanded its reach to include Sherman College, Wofford College, and individual seminars from coast to coast. Freedom School continues today from Tennessee, where Cullinane moved in 2000 to found Freedom Mountain Academy.

Notable teachers at the Freedom School or Rampart College include [[Rose Wilder Lane]], [[Milton Friedman]], [[F.A. Harper]], [[Frank Chodorov]], [[Leonard Read]], [[Gordon Tullock]], [[G. Warren Nutter]], [[Bruno Leoni]], [[James J. Martin]], and [[Ludwig von Mises]].

Notable graduates include [[Roy Childs]], [[Kerry Wendell Thornley|Kerry Thornley]], and [[Roger MacBride]].

==Views==
{{Main|Autarchism}}
LeFevre believed that [[natural law]] is above the [[Positive law|law]] of the [[State (polity)|state]] and that for [[United States|American]] [[society]] to prosper economically, [[Free market|free-market]] reforms were essential. He also believed that bestowing the good deeds of society on its [[government]] was no different from rewarding [[Crime|criminals]] for abstaining from illegal activity. All government consists of {{em|[[convention (norm)|customs]]}} and {{em|[[institution]]s}} that control our lives by [[Theft|stealing]] our [[property]], restricting our freedom, and endangering our lives with the rationale of protecting us from ourselves.

===Pacifism===
LeFevre was also famously a [[Pacifism|pacifist]], and taught his brand of [[libertarianism]] during the 1960s at the [[Freedom School]], later [[Rampart College]].<ref name=rfc>{{cite book |last=Doherty |first=Brian |title=Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement |publisher=PublicAffairs |location=New York |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-58648-572-6}}</ref>{{rp|312}} Given his dedication to pacifism, LeFevre also spoke out against war as a product of the state. He once gave a speech called "Prelude to Hell" to a local [[Lions Club]] about what it would be like for a typical American city to get nuked as a result of "those mighty, terrible, pointless conflicts that the modern state inevitably creates."<ref name=rfc/>{{rp|318}} According to Doherty, LeFevre was "capable of facing down angry [[lieutenant colonel]]s, who raged at his pacifistic refusal to fight for the flag, and explaining his theory of human rights so patiently, so guilelessly, that in the end the crusty colonel had to admit that LeFevre was right to stand his ground."<ref name=rfc/>{{rp|319}}
According to Robert Smith, LeFevre became convinced of the power of [[Nonviolent resistance|non-violent resistance]] after a run-in with a [[Trade union|union]]. "I remember him telling the story," says Smith, "of union goons busting into a radio station he worked at. And he just fell flat on the ground and lay there. They were so nonplussed they walked out without beating the shit out of him. That convinced him of the principles of nonviolence."<ref name=rfc/>{{rp|319}}

==In popular culture==
* Some, such as [[Brian Doherty (journalist)|Brian Doherty]], claim that Robert LeFevre's movement was a basis for [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s book ''[[The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress]]'', and that LeFevre was the basis for the character Professor Bernardo de la Paz, organizer of the Lunar revolution.<ref>{{cite book |last=Doherty |first=Brian |title=Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement |publisher=PublicAffairs<sup>TM</sup> |location=New York |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-58648-572-6 |page=385 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=LeFevre |first=Robert |title=A Way to Be Free, Volume Two (back cover)|publisher=Pulpless |location=Culver City, CA |year=1999 |isbn=1-58445-144-0}} (published posthumously)</ref>

* In the alternate history novel ''[[The Probability Broach]]'' by [[L. Neil Smith]] as part of the [[North American Confederacy|North American Confederacy Series]], in which the [[United States]] becomes a [[Libertarianism|libertarian state]] in 1794 after a successful [[Whiskey Rebellion]] and the overthrowing and execution of [[George Washington]] by firing squad for treason, '''Robert LeFevre''' served as the 23rd President of the [[North American Confederacy]] from 1960 to 1968.

==Bibliography==
* ''Anarchy'' (1959)
* ''The Nature of Man and His Government'' (Caxton Printing, 1959) ISBN 0-87004-086-3
* ''[https://mises.org/books/thisbreadismine.pdf This Bread is Mine]'' (American Liberty Press, 1960)
* ''Constitutional Government in the Soviet Union'' (Exposition Press, 1962; Pine Tree Press, 1966)
* ''Limited Government- Hope or Illusion?'' (Pine Tree Press, 1963)
* ''Role of Private Property in a Free Society'' (Pine Tree Press, 1963)
* ''Anarchy v. Autoarchy'' (Pine Tree Press, 1965)
* ''Money'' (Pine Tree Press, 1965)
* ''[https://mises.org/books/ownership.pdf The Philosophy of Ownership]'' (Pine Tree Press, 1966, 1985; Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007)
* ''Justice'' (Rampart College, 1972)
* ''Lift Her Up Tenderly'' (Pine Tree Press, 1976)
* ''Does Government Protection Protect?'' (Society for Libertarian Life ed, Rampart Press, 1978)
* ''Good Government: Hope or Illusion?''(Society for Libertarian Life ed, Rampart Press, 1978)
* ''The Libertarian'' (Bramble Minibooks, 1978?)
* ''Protection'' (Rampart College, n.d.)
* ''The Fundamentals of Liberty'' (Rampart Institute, 1988) (posthumously) ISBN 0-9620480-0-3
* ''A Way to Be Free'' (Pulpless, 1999) (posthumously) (autobiography) Vol 1 ISBN 1-58445-141-6, Vol 2 ISBN 1-58445-144-0

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://www.mises.org/story/2133 LeFevre's essay, "Who Was the Original Aunt Jemima and What Did She Do?"]
* [http://centerforselfrule.org/autarchy/ LeFevre's essay, "Autarchy"]
* [https://www.mises.org/story/1970 LeFevre's essay, "The Nature of Man and His Government" (1959)]
* [http://www.voluntaryist.com/lefevre/ LeFevre articles on ''The Voluntaryist'' website]. ''The Voluntaryist'' is a newsletter devoted to LeFevre's views of libertarianism.
* [https://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=27 Audio archive of 50 LeFevre commentaries] hosted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. These commentaries have made their mark in the history of libertarian ideas for their clarity, eloquence, and pedagogical value. Drawing on great thought from all ages, and specifically influenced by Rothbardian political economy, Robert LeFevre asks and answers fundamental questions about the relationship between man, property, society, and the state.
* [http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv29769 Guide to the Robert LeFevre papers from 1946–1981 at the University of Oregon.]
* [http://freedomschool.org The Freedom School] New school established in January 2010 dedicated to carrying on in the LeFevre tradition.
* [https://archive.org/details/foia_LeFevre_Robert_T._Denver Robert LeFevre's FBI file] hosted at the [[Internet Archive]]

''Note that the website hosting the following essays, ''F.A.E.M. (First Amendment Exercise Machine)'', contains other articles with many controversial remarks that may be offensive. These are unrelated to the beliefs of Robert LeFevre.''
* [http://www.faem.com/lefevre/fevre01.htm LeFevre on principles]
* [http://www.faem.com/lefevre/fevre02.htm LeFevre on freedom]
* [http://www.faem.com/lefevre/fevre03.htm LeFevre on the genesis of property]
* [http://www.faem.com/lefevre/fevre04.htm LeFevre on] the [[morality]] of ownership
* [http://www.faem.com/lefevre/fevre05.htm LeFevre on] the [[community]] and private property
* [http://www.faem.com/lefevre/fevre06.htm LeFevre on] [[Capitalism]]
* [http://www.faem.com/lefevre/fevre07.htm LeFevre on] the [[American Revolution]]
* [http://www.faem.com/lefevre/fevre08.htm LeFevre on] [[money]]

{{Authority control}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME = Lefevre, Robert
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = American businessman and activist
| DATE OF BIRTH = 13 October 1911
| PLACE OF BIRTH = United States
| DATE OF DEATH = 13 May 1986
| PLACE OF DEATH = United States
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lefevre, Robert}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]
[[Category:American military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:American people of French descent]]
[[Category:American anarchists]]
[[Category:American libertarians]]
[[Category:American pacifists]]
[[Category:American political writers]]
[[Category:American male writers]]
[[Category:American radio personalities]]
[[Category:Anarchist theorists]]
[[Category:Anarcho-capitalists]]
[[Category:Individualist anarchists]]
[[Category:Libertarian theorists]]
[[Category:Voluntaryists]]
[[Category:California Republicans]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces officers]]
[[Category:People from Gooding, Idaho]]
[[Category:People from Minneapolis, Minnesota]]